The National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC),(Malayalam: നാഷണല്‍ ഇന്‍സ്റ്റിറ്റ്യൂട്ട് ഓഫ് ടെക്നോളജി കാലിക്കറ്റ്‌ ), (Hindi: राष्ट्रीय संस्थान प्रौद्योगिकी, कालिकट), formerly the Calicut Regional Engineering College (CREC), is a federally funded technical university and an institute of national importance governed by an act passed by the Parliament of India. The campus is situated at Chathamangalam, 22 kilometres (14 mi) north east of Kozhikode, formerly known as Calicut, on the Kozhikode–Mukkam Road.[3] It was established in 1961 and was known as Calicut Regional Engineering College (CREC) until 2002. It is one of the National Institutes of Technology established by the Government of India for imparting high standard technical education to students from all over the country. The college is among the very few institutions in the country to host a Supercomputer of its own.[4]

Contents

History1

Initial years1.1

Expansion1.2

Recent developments1.3

Academic departments2

Engineering departments2.1

Science departments2.2

Schools2.3

Allied department2.4

Courses2.5

School of Management Studies2.6

IT Finishing School2.7

International Liaison Office3

International conferences and symposiums3.1

Rankings3.2

Facilities4

Hostels4.1

Sports4.2

Central Computer Center4.3

Central Library4.4

Technology Business Incubator4.5

Culture and student life5

Tathva5.1

Ragam5.2

Student organisations5.3

Admissions6

Administration7

NITC people8

Chairpersons8.1

Principals/directors8.2

Notable alumni8.3

See also9

References10

External links11

History

Initial years

The Administrative Block

National Institute of Technology, Calicut was set up in 1961 as Regional Engineering College Calicut (CREC), the ninth of its kind and the first one to be established during the Third Five-Year Plan period. Until the formation of Calicut University in 1963, the institute was affiliated with Kerala University. It was largely due to the efforts of Pattom Thanu Pillai, then Chief Minister of Kerala, that the institute came into being. Prof. S. Rajaraman, first principal of Government Engineering College, Thrissur was appointed as the special officer in 1961 to organise the activities of the college until M. V. Kesava Rao took charge as the first principal of the college. The classes were initially held at the Government Polytechnic at West Hill, before it moved to its present campus in 1963. The college started with an annual intake of 125 students for the undergraduate courses, on a campus of 120 hectares (1.2 km2).

Expansion

Bhaskara Lecture Hall

The intake for the undergraduate courses was increased to 250 in 1966, 150 for the first year and 100 for the preparatory course. The annual intake was reduced from 250 to 200 from the year 1968–69 on account of industrial recession.

After Prof S. Unnikrishnan Pillai took charge as principal in 1983, the Training and Placement Department was started to organise campus recruitments for students. The college moved into the area of information technology in 1984 with the commissioning of multi-user PSI Omni system and HCL workhorse PCs. In 1987 the college celebrated 25 years of its existence, and postgraduate courses were started. The CEDTI was established on the campus the following year.

Recent developments

The Electronic Lecture Hall Complex

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, accorded NIT status to REC Calicut in June 2002 granting it academic and administrative autonomy. It was a lead institute under the World Bank-funded Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP) which began in 2002. In 2003, students were first admitted to the flagship undergraduate B.Tech through the All India Engineering Entrance Exam. With the passing of the National Institutes of Technology Act in May 2007, NIT Calicut was declared an Institute of National Importance.[5] The National Institutes of Technology Act is the second legislation for technical education institutions after the Indian Institutes of Technology Act of 1961. In 2007 NIT Calicut raised its annual intake for its undergraduate program to 570.[6] The annual intake for undergraduate program was increased to 1049 by 2011.[7]

School of Management Studies

The School of Management Studies offers a two-year Master of Business Administration(MBA) program exclusively for graduates in Engineering.But 2013 on-wards, school admits students from different graduation streams having mathematics as one area of study. The school also offers PhD program in management. The admission to the MBA program is based on CAT score, performance in group discussion and personal interviews. This general MBA program offers electives in the streams – Finance, Human resource management, Operations management, Business Analytics and systems, Marketing, strategic management etc.

The program was initiated in 2008 and the first batch of students enrolled in 2009.

IT Finishing School

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, has started IT finishing schools at NIT Calicut and seven other national institutions: the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) at Durgapur, Kurushetra, Jaipur, Surathkal, Trichy and Warangal. This school is supportd by NASSCOM and some of the major IT companies in India.[8]

International Liaison Office

The institute has set up an International Liaison Office to follow up the MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between NITC and other institutions in the world. It also guides current students from abroad and those interested in joining the institute. In 2011, a MoU was signed between NITC and Auburn University (USA) for research in Photonics.[9] A MoU was also signed with NITK Suratkal for academic and research collaborations.[10] NITC is also the mentoring institute of NIT Sikkim.

International conferences and symposiums

For two consecutive years, 2010 and 2011, NIT Calicut organised the Indo-US Symposium on Biocomputing.[11] The symposium was organised jointly by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the School of Biotechnology, and was held at the Taj Gateway in Kozhikode. It was jointly funded by the Department of Bio-Technology (India) and the National Science Foundation (USA) .[12] The symposium consisted of a series of talks by leading researchers from India and the US in the area of Biocomputing.

Rankings

NITC was ranked 5 (Factual Rank 7) by the India Today Best Engineering colleges 2012.[14] In rankings limited to government institutes it was ranked 18 by the Mint Top 50 Government Engineering Colleges of 2009.[15] NITC Architecture department is ranked 5 by the Outlook India Best Architecture colleges in India 2013.

Facilities

Hostels

Ladies' Hostel

NITC is a fully residential institution with 13 hostels on the campus to accommodate students. There are 12 boys' hostels, named by letters A, B, C, D, E, F, F', G, PG I, PG II,IH and newly formed Mega Boys Hostel.Four girls' hostels (LH). A, B,C and Mega Ladies Hostel Hostels have triple rooms but accommodate four students per room due to increase in intake of students and shortage of hostel facilities. D, E, F, G, PG I, and PG II are single-seated but, due to high intake of students, some rooms are being used as doubles. Professor's Apartments (FB) are also rented out due to shortage of hostel facilities.

A and PG I hostels accommodate I year B.Tech students. II year B.Tech students are accommodated in the B hostel and FB apartments. III year B.Tech students are accommodated in C, and Mega hostel. Final year B.Tech students are accommodated in D, E, F,G and PG-II hostels. M.Tech. and MCA students reside in apartments. All hostels apart from A and PG-1 are well connected through a 100 Mbit/s LAN network.

The boys' hostels are close to the academic area while girls' hostels and Professor's Apartments are in the residential campus. There are around 4500 students in NITC hostels. A mini-canteen is available in the hostel premises.

Each hostel has its own mess and students are allowed to join the mess of any hostel with an exception of A and PG I which are exclusive for first years. The type of food served in the hostel messes are as follows:

Cosmopolitan: A, PG I

Vegetarian:B(North Indian), C (South Indian), E(North Indian)

Non-vegetarian: F,G&PG-II(North & South mixed),PG II (Kerala)

Students are permitted to use their own computers in their rooms. All hostels are connected to the Campus Networking Center through which internet connectivity is provided for free. Every year, students set up LANs in the hostels according to their needs. Each hostel contains a common room with cable TV,daily newspaper and indoor games faciities.

There are three hostels in NIT Calicut to accommodate female undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. programme students. Two cosmopolitan messes are available in the girls' hostel premises. Other facilities like mini-canteen, indoor shuttle court, gymnasium and an extension of the Co-operative Society store are available in the girls' hostel.

Sports

NITC has a gymnasium, swimming pool, an open air theatre, an auditorium and facilities for outdoor sports like tennis, football, volleyball, badminton, roller skating, hockey and basketball. It also has a cricket ground where Ranji Trophy matches have been played.[16]

Central Computer Center

The Central Computer Center

The Central Computer Center[17] is a central computing facility which caters to the computing requirements of the whole community of this institution. The working hours of this centre is on round the clock on all working days except Republic day, Independence day, Thiruvonam, Vijayadashami, Gandhi Jayanthi, Bakrid & Christmas.

The centre is equipped with three IBM X-series servers, one Dell PowerEdge 6600 Quad Processor Xeon Server, six Dell PowerEdge 2600 Dual Processor Server and one Sunfire V210 Server. The Desktops and Thin clients are connected to the servers through gigabit switches and CAT6 UTP cables. The centre is connected to the campus-networking centre with backbone of 32Mbit/s through a Nortel L3 switch and in turn to internet.

Central Library

NITC's Central Library, with more than 100,000 books, is one of the largest technical libraries in India. It subscribes to more than 200 print journals. The institute has a digital library, Nalanda (Network of Automated Library and Archives), which houses online resources. Users of the institute and networked institutions can access around 17,000 journals, proceedings, databases, electronic theses, dissertations and online courses at Nalanda. It is part of the Indest consortium, which networks the libraries at technical institutions in India.

NIT Calicut's supercomputer, Purna (Parallel Universal Remote Numerical Analyser), is accessible from anywhere in the campus and is provided for the use of all students and faculty members. PURNA has a peak speed of 1.5 Tera Flops.[4]

Technology Business Incubator

The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at NIT Calicut was set up with the help of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB). Its objective is to help the development of start-up ventures in electronics and IT.TBI provide workspace with shared office facilities with emphasis on business and professional services necessary for nurturing and supporting early stage growth of technology and technology based enterprises.[18][19]

Culture and student life

NIT Calicut holds two major annual events, the techno-management festival Tathva, held in the monsoon semester and the cultural festival Ragam, which is held in the winter semester.

Tathva

Ragam

Open Air Theater

Ragam is the cultural festival of NITC. Colleges and universities from Kerala and outside compete in events like trivia quizzes, dance competitions, rock shows and music concerts. Some of the performers who have performed in previous years include Shaan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Blaaze, Shankar Mahadevan, Kartik, Benny Dayal, Stephen Devassy and Parikrama. 'Breathe Floyd' a Pink Floyd tribute band from the UK performed during Ragam 2009. Ragam 2010 featured KK, Naresh Iyer and "Higher on Maiden" a tribute band to Iron Maiden.

Ragam is held in the memory of former student P. Rajan who died after being held (ostensibly for being a Naxalite) in police custody.[20]

Student organisations

The student organisations at NITC include Robotics Interest Group (RIG), The Literary and Debating Club (LND), The Indian Cultural Association (ICA), The Forum for Dance and Dramatics(DND), Computer Science & Engineering Association (CSEA), Chemical Engineering Association (CHEA) which is the NITC Chapter of IIChE, Mechanical Engineering Association, Enquire (the NITC Quiz Club), The Music Club, Club Mathematica, Audio Visual Club (AVC), Team Unwired (Engineering and Technology Club), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) student chapter, the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Students' Chapter,[21] The Industrial and Planning Forum (IPF), the Nature Club, Adventure Club (Ad-Club).

Admissions

Students are taken in for the undergraduate courses through the Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main) conducted by CBSE, New Delhi. Around 16 lakh students wrote this test in 2012 to gain admission to one of 20 NITs. This makes it one of the largest such examinations in the world.[23] Admission to some other autonomous national level technical institutes (called Deemed University) is also through AIEEE. Students who have studied outside India for a minimum period of 2(two) years may seek admission through DASA (Direct Admission for Students Abroad) which was managed by EdCil (Educational Consultants India Limited) and is currently being managed by National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Suratkal (NIT-K) based on 12th Standard Board Examination marks or equivalent higher secondary examination marks/grade and SAT-II (Scholastic Aptitude Test -II) scores in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics conducted by College Board. Similar admission provision is provided for foreign nationals.

Admission to the graduate M.Tech and PhD courses are primarily based on scores in the GATE exam, conducted by the IITs. Admission to the MCA programme is done through the NIMCET conducted by the NITs. The first NIMCET in 2006 was conducted by NIT Calicut. Faculty from other institutes work as research scholars in NITC under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP). It is the national coordination centre for the QIP of polytechnic institutes.

Admission to MBA course is based on the Common Admission Test[CAT] score. Admission details will be published in the institute website and major dailies in India. The applicants will be shortlisted based on the CAT score, performance in qualifying degree (BTech/BE), work experience etc. The final selection is based on the performance of shortlisted candidates in group discussion (GD) and personal interview (PI). The GD and PI are normally conducted at major cities across India.

Administration

Under the constitution of the National Institutes of Technology Act 2007, the President of India is the Visitor to the institute. The authorities of the institute are Board of Governors and the Senate. The Board is headed by the chairman, who is appointed by the Visitor. The Director, who is the secretary of the Board, looks after the day-to-day running of the institute. The Board of Governors has nominees of the Central Government, the State Government, the NIT Council and the Institute Senate.

This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.

Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.